Friday, March 28, 2014

Another journalist killed in Iraq

Another journalist has been killed in Iraq. All Iraq News reports that Wathiq al-Ghadhanfari was shot dead in Mosul. He had hosted "a TV program over the history of Nineveh at Mosul local TV stations" and he was "also the candidate of Motahidon Alliance chaired by Speaker" of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi.

We are deeply concerned about the circumstances surrounding his death
and we call on the Government of Iraq to conduct a full investigation
into the incident and to hold the perpetrator of this criminal act to
account. The killing of any innocent is to be deplored. The murder of a
journalist is a particular affront because it strikes at a fundamental
pillar of democracy.

Oh, wait, she won't.

Hundreds of journalists have died in Iraq. The only time it was news to this administration (2009 to present) was when it was a man who worked for the US propaganda service.

Hey, you know why NPR didn't highlight his work?

Because it can be played over US airwaves per law. The US Congress passed a law refusing to allow US government propaganda aired to fool foreign countries to be broadcast in the US.

The 'journalist' noted on Monday worked for the US government and worked to advance US propaganda in Iraq. For that reason, Barack Obama's administration finally gave a damn about a journalist.

They called his death a "murder." Even though eye witness reports state the Peshmerga officer and the 'journalist' had an exchange, the Peshmerga ordered the journalist to leave the area (the presidential compound) and the 'journalist' refused and became abusive.

Does that justify his being shot?

No.

But also true, you don't call it a "murder" before you know the facts and the facts are still emerging.

YANAR MOHAMMED,
PRESIDENT, ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN'S FREEDOM IN IRAQ: Sovereignty for
whom? I think he's talking about the 275 or 300-something
parliamentarians who are living inside the International Zone. (And
that's the new name for the Green Zone. It's not "Green" anymore.) It's
only the sovereignty for those people. And they have the whole wealth of
Iraq, while the people are suffering. And there's a number that was
produced by the UN reports: almost 38 percent of the Iraqi people are
living under the poverty line. Sovereignty for whom?

DESVARIEUX:
Many questions still remain for the people of Iraq after, almost 11
years ago, troops toppled the government of Saddam Hussein and brought
to power the Shiite government of al-Maliki.

Iraqi labor
organizer pointed out how the U.S.-backed al-Maliki government is more
concerned with amassing wealth and seizing resources, and it aims to
crush organized labor movements and remain in power.

FALAH
ALWAN, PRESIDENT, FEDERATION OF WORKERS COUNCILS AND UNIONS: The new
government, busy with how to redivide the wealth and how to seize the
resources of the society and how to spend mountains of dollars and
gold--and this corrupted government, supported directly by the U.S.
government.

The new Iraqi authorities, despite the tragic
situation in Iraq, they want to impose a new legislation, which enable
them to be in power and [incompr.] in power by controlling the so-called
elections and to issue new labor laws to control the workers and
prevent them from expressing their demands and their interests, and
keeping the old laws of Saddam, which would prevent the workers from
organizing themselves, from holding strikes, from negotiating, from
calling for their interests. All--we can talk about the tragedies day
and night.

The following community sites -- plus the Independent, the ACLU, the Guardian, Jody Watley, Susan's On the Edge, Antiwar.com, Pacifica Evening News, Chocolate City, Great Britain's Socialist Worker, Jake Tapper and the House Veterans Affairs Committee -- updated last night and this morning:

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